1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device that holds a pen or pencil and, when gripped by a user positions the thumb and fingers into an ergonomically correct position in order to effectively relieve stress and pain in the users hand while doing handwriting tasks and improves coordination in a developing or injured hand unable to write efficiently.
2. Description of Related Art
When using a pen or pencil, a normally healthy person grips the writing instrument between the tips of his/her thumb and index finger, and sometimes the third and/or fourth fingers are used to provide additional support. During use, as a writer continues to write, he/she over time may gradually squeeze the writing instrument harder and harder by increasing the amount of force that is applied to the writing instrument by pressing the pads of his/her fingers against the writing instrument to both prevent the user's fingers from sliding down toward the end of the writing instrument and to urge the writing instrument to press down against the paper. Extensive use of hand held writing instruments by people who write can result in tendonitis also known as writer's cramp. To relieve the stress and pain, a person, whether child or adult, may develop an incorrect grip while writing. This incorrect grip leads to injury of the joints of the thumb and fingers that keep the person from writing neatly and efficiently—meaning clearly written words, of high quality, which are legible, and created at a speed necessary to stay on task at work or at school or within the home.
Prior to a writer being aware that he/she is developing writer's cramp or joint injury, various letters of the words being written on the paper will gradually become illegible and the writing will be less neat. At some time thereafter, the writer will notice a pain or numbness in his/her fingers and possibly his/her forearm of the writing hand, and will have to stop writing and rest for a short time. A side effect of writer's cramp is that the discomfort experienced by the writer can become both a distraction to the writer's train of thought and will increase the time needed to finish the handwriting task.
Pain, discomfort and/or numbness when writing may also be experienced by a person with a joint disorder, with unstable joints or with poor muscle control, a person that experiences difficulties in holding a pen or pencil in the traditional way, or a person who has experienced a recent injury in his/her writing hand or arm.
Children learning to write may be unable to correctly hold a pencil because of his/her undeveloped fine motor skills. They will write inefficiently producing a written product that lacks quality equal to the thought process of the child. Because their joints are not stable and their muscle control is not yet developed enough to do the writing tasks assigned to them, these children will often try one of many awkward, ineffective handwriting grips. These awkward grip positions are functionally incorrect hand positions on a writing utensil that sadly, become habitual. Over time, they suffer from tendonitis and pain because the awkward writing grip is not an ergonomically correct position.
In addition, some people are unable to correctly hold a pencil or pen because they suffer from a joint disorder, an injury to the hand, or poor muscle control due to a medical condition. These people will experience pain or difficultly when they attempt to write if they are unable to stabilize the pencil or pen effectively.
In these above listed situations, when the correct pencil grip can not be obtained there are a variety of incorrect, awkward hand positions on the writing utensil that a person will use as they try to find a comfortable grip for writing. Some of the positions cause joint destabilization including, but not limited to, thumb interphalangeal joint hyperextension or hyperflexion, thumb metacarpophalangeal joint hyperflexion or hyperextension; index finger interphalangeal hyperextension or hyperflexion, just to list a few. When the incorrect handwriting grip becomes habitual, over time the excessive amount of pressure on these joints in the above listed positions of the dominant hand often result in the need for medical care to address the pain, injury, or numbess caused by joint destabilization or tendonitis.
What is needed is an apparatus that can hold a writing instrument such as a pen or a pencil and, when gripped by a person will open the webspace of the hand, stabilize the joints of the thumb and finger, support the arch of the hand and allow the ring and small fingers to give extra support during writing. Writers need an apparatus that will not only effectively prevent hand stress during handwriting tasks, but will allow a person who has difficulty holding a writing instrument to now more easily perform a hand writing task while holding the writing instrument using a correct writing grasp.